As said above, if you get caught in a public place in your uniform in the UK, you get the looks and stares or just plain old abuse
Yep, you get stared at. Hardly surprising since seeing a member of HM armed forces, in uniform, on the street is unusual. Apart from the odd military convoy on the M6 or if you live in Aldershot, the general public doesn't see forces personel in uniform. When they do, they stare. Hell they stare at me if I go into tescos wearing a hi-viz vest.
I grew up in Tamworth. Every saturday night outside Manhattons night-club there was a landrover. Inside the landrover were two MPs. Every saturday they had to drag some drunken, fighting mad squaddy (or squaddies) out of the club and back to the barracks in Whittington.
Every saturday.
Without fail.
No mystery why the locals equated squaddies with trouble, is there?
As for RAF personel in uniform I can honestly say that, outside of a visit to RIAT, I have never seen one, in public.
If it's any consolation, the people I know and work with consider that the armed forces do a good job in inpossible circumstances with less kit than they should have.
Intelligent people can tell the difference between the military and government policy. Stupid people? Well who cares what sun readers think?